Gemaco sets the standard for cyclicts

2 April 2017

Today it’s Ronde Van Vlaanderen. Today is D-Day! Over the years, Gemaco has been providing promotional concepts for Mediahuis and De Ronde Van Vlaanderen, the biggest national cycling contest in Belgium.

We have been creating the cycling caps for years now, and as traditions are there to be honoured, we had the privilege to produce them again in 2017. If you’re on the side of the road or in front of your television today, you will probably spot one of these eyecatchers.

For us, a cycling cap does not only symbolise cycling contests. It symbolises years and years of national tradition and we’re very proud to be able to produce such relics that even the greatest professional cyclists have been wearing for over decades.

Our client came up with the first designs, so we got together and proposed multiple cap models and styles according to the design they delivered.

During this cooperation, the perfect mix of creativity and quality made sure we ended up with a great result: An exclusive cap for De Ronde Van Vlaanderen.

Our web development team decided to analyse the existing platform and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. In an early stage, it was already clear that the new website would be designed for mobile devices as the majority of fans will access race content from their smartphone or tablet.

The homepage for example, contains all convenient information for the race fan. From an extremely detailed roadmap of every race, to participating riders and pictures of previous editions. It also provides a constantly updated newsfeed of items covering on the races.

“The extend of content that is now available on the platform is not to be underestimated. Everything can be managed by Flanders Classics’ web team and has been copywrited in detail”, says Development Manager Thomas Rypens. “We also foresee 24/7 server support as the website for Ronde Van Vlaanderen alone, will have around 160000 visitors on the day of the race.”

After finishing the content input, we also had to ensure someone was able to maintain and update the platform. “That was the fun part about this project”, says Thomas. “Not only were we able to provide the client with a promotional concept and a digital solution for their current platform, we also created the opportunity for them to take matters into their own hands, by giving them an intensive two-day training. As of today, they are maintaining the platform themselves”. By ensuring a balanced collaboration during this project, the partnership with this client will be continued over the following years.